Treefight for Sunlight
Treefight for Sunlight

You have to feel for Treefight For Sunlight. With the industry seemingly insistent that bands burst forth fully-formed, firing on all cylinders from the word go, it’s practically career suicide for your first album to merely suggest potential rather than scream instant magnificence. But that’s exactly what we get with the Copenhagen foursome’s self-titled debut. Treefight For Sunlight isn’t a knockout success, but it just about contains enough to suggest that, if there’s any justice, the Danes deserve a second crack of the whip.

On paper, theirs is a beguiling proposition – imagine a slightly cartoonish take on Sixties West Coast psychedelia, augmented by vocal layers reminiscent of MGMT or Panda Bear. Indeed, the enchanting curtain raiser ‘A Dream Before Sleep’ does a good job of whetting the appetite. But as first song proper ‘You And The New World’ moves into focus, the excitement levels are quickly dampened. It has decent ear-candy value, so isn’t completely without charm – but as a song, it’s a non-starter.

And the album’s a real mixed bag from here on. The bright and breezy ‘Facing The Sun’ is enjoyable, if a little lightweight, yet it’s sandwiched between the utterly forgettable ‘They Never Did Know’ and the so-jaunty-it’s-actually-quite-annoying ‘Rain Air’. That’s not to say that all the jauntiness is unwelcome, though – the rousing sing-along ‘What Became Of You And I’ is by some distance the album highlight, even though it’d be far better suited to CBBC than to the Brixton Academy.

With ‘Time Stretcher’, the record ends on an uncharacteristically intense, broody note. But while it means the album lacks a satisfying pay-off, it also signals a path via which Treefight For Sunlight can develop and mature. But with their debut album being so patchy, they may not be given the chance.